Alex Guarnaschelli
Who Cares if You’re the Clown, As Long As You Can Dance in the Circus
October 18, 2007 | by Noah on the writeup.. Jay on the Video | Permalink
Alex Guarnaschelli, executive chef of NYC’s Butter, did not, after college, have the “frame of reference” to enter the culinary world with her art history degree in tow. So, the daughter of a cookbook editor did what anyone else would do: she took a road trip across the country with her three best friends.
After a year of introductory learning in the kitchen, Alex entered a work-study program in Burgundy, France. Often the butt of jokes during her first couple years in the kitchen, Alex was glad to be there, and learned as much as she could.
“Who cares if you’re a clown,” she says, “as long as you’re dancing in the circus.” Ready to come home, Alex’s mother suggested a short stint at a friend’s restaurant in Paris. In a story similar to that of California’s Paella king Gerard Nebesky, Alex’s three days in France became four-and-a-half years.
Alex’s first piece of advice for aspiring chefs is to “park gender at the door, and just survive and learn.” She recounts vivid stories of doing just so, in the often-intense, male dominated French kitchens where she spent her formative years. Another lesson gleaned from Alex’s life is to fear abandoning “normalcy” in the name
of following a dream. Alex quickly learned that feminine style had no place in the kitchen. She also, more drastically, chose France over marriage, a choice she stands by today.
“You have to get it out of your system,” she says, of fun and youthful choices, “so that when you hunker down, and choose something you’re truly passionate about, there’s no static on your mental radio, because you’ve lived a little bit to your own liking.”
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Steve Says:
October 22nd, 2007
I like and agree with Alex in her suggestion to pick something and do it rather than sitting around and contemplating. Good advice. Life is a journey. Every step leads to something else.
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